At its core, Super Time Force Ultra is a heavily addictive side-scrolling shooter, and a great one at that - even without the intuitive Time Out feature. The game is beautifully smooth to play from start to finish; members of the Super Time Force feel responsive and effortless to control, which is somewhat essential given the title's fast pacing. Each one has their own set of abilities, and a special move that can be activated by holding down the square button for a short period of time. Furthermore, they're all refreshingly unique, and while you're sure to end up finding a handful of members that you're most comfortable playing as, none of them come across as being useless or redundant.

The cast of characters that you'll recruit and interact with during your adventures are instantly likeable, and this is only improved upon with the inclusion of PlayStation-exclusive names such as Shuhei Yoshida and The Order: 1886's moustachioed Sir Galahad. Practically all of the game's dialogue is brought about by the squad's doubly-eyepatched Commander Repeatski and his dastardly nemesis Dr. Infinity, and is thoroughly seasoned with light-hearted comedy and pop culture references. While some of these teeter dangerously on the edge of cringe-worthy internet humour, the release manages to remain confident in its playful tone, and this ultimately pays off – especially in the various visual gags and goofs that are there to be enjoyed.

While we're on the topic of the game's visuals, it should be mentioned that the title is delightfully sprited, and animated rather well. Its eye-catching colour palette maintains an appropriate and tasteful energy almost constantly, and the environments that you'll be exploring are all lovingly hand-crafted and detailed. The simplicity of the art style in these areas, however, can sometimes lead to the odd mishap or misjudgement in more heated situations - but this isn't a huge concern.

There are multiple eras in history to travel to, and each one typically comes equipped with four different acts to conquer. Even in earlier sequences, there's never a dull moment to be had with these, as the level design keeps gameplay fresh and unfamiliar. One minute, you'll be flying upwards through heaven with a jetpack strapped to your back, and the next, you'll be escorting an atomic battering ram safely to its destination.

There are also a few collectibles scattered throughout each area, and many of them require some forward thinking to obtain, such as Glorbs – golden treasures that shoot out of enemies and objects when they take enough damage. It's unlikely that you'll find it necessary to try and nab all of these, but they do offer quite a large amount of replay value for anyone looking to attain 100 per cent completion on each stage.

In addition to this, Super Time Force Ultra also presents a selection of puzzle-like side missions for you to test your mettle against. In these simulations, you're tasked with getting all of the available Glorbs before time runs out, or before they hit the ground and smash. It's a simple concept, but can prove to be particularly engaging as the maps get more complex. There are a lot of these missions to get through, too, with more being unlocked as you pick up new crewmates.

Speaking of crewmates, you'll be directed to these activities through a sort of 'hub', or rather, your spaceship. It's from here that you can also review your progress, such as the amount of Glorbs that you've collected, and how many Shards you've gathered. You can even check up on the 'Force as they relax around various sections of the ship, and all of this really helps to make the title just that little bit more immersive - and your achievements all the more genuine.

That being said, a side-scrolling shooter akin to the likes of Contra just wouldn't be complete without an ensemble of baddies to blast your way through, and there certainly isn't a lack of those here. Lesser enemies are varied, and good fun to fight in their own right, but it's the bosses that you'll come up against which really steal the show. They're all very, very imaginative, and the joy of discovering them is matched only by figuring out how on Earth you're going to dispatch a poop monster the size of a building within the next ten seconds.

This compelling blend of non-stop action and a desire to know what's coming next is only enhanced by the release's charismatic soundtrack – a head-bobbing, upbeat assortment of chiptune-esque tracks – and its comical, blunt, often slapstick sound design. Oh, and the Time Out mechanic too, of course – which ties in splendidly to all of the aspects of gameplay on offer. It's easy to learn, and even easier to master, assuming that you're prepared to get a little experimental with it.

Upon dying - or with a tap of the circle button - you can stop the mission dead in its tracks, rewind back to an earlier moment, and then spawn another 'you' at that point in time. This opens up an array of possibilities to make use of when clearing stages efficiently, from adding more firepower to a single assault, veering off the main path to accomplish side objectives, or just making up for a couple of squandered seconds. What's more, any past death that you've managed to prevent from happening will transform the 'you' that should have died into a procurable power-up – one that combines their special ability with your own, as well as granting you an extra hit point. No avoidable death feels especially pointless because of this, and in many cases, can actually be more beneficial than staying alive in the first place.

Conclusion

Those looking for a bombastic, light-hearted game to sink some time into – no pun intended – will surely find just that in Super Time Force Ultra. It's a fantastic side-scrolling shooter in itself, but its stellar level design, personality, and time-travelling capabilities make it into something very special. STFU is one of the best indie releases on PS4.

Love this game! It's such a blast and I love the unique characters. Still trying to find Sir Galahad and Shuhei Yoshida though.. Oh, and the thing from Journey.. Probably the 3 characters I want to play as most!

@Mithrandir circle once dead - left trigger - I know what you mean I was stuck on that for a while as I never had a clue what I was doing or why I would do it. But circle then left trigger after half a second.

@Mithrandir I'm with @LieutenantFatman, @kyleforrester87 and @Melucine here - I've been playing the Vita version and the controls were clearly explained. I don't think they're as good as they could be (see my thoughts on this in the STFU thread), but they are definitely explained.

Had a bit of a mess around with the HellaDeck levels earlier and they seem like a fun little distraction too, so plenty of value to be had from the game (especially of you got it free on PS Plus)!

I tried it off the back of this review and even though it's fun I hate game's that are against the clock so I doubt i'll play it but tbh it is fun and i'm pretty sure I would play this game to the full if it wasn't against the clock, I realise this is a personal preferance so I agree it's a decent game, 9/10 is a little high though I reckon.

@xMEADx I'd argue that without the time limit, there'd be no challenge, though - utilising the Time Stop ability in order to cut corners and save a few seconds is what it's all about. Take that away, and it'd be too easy, don't you think?

I tried that one out on XBoxOne when it was on Gold some time ago - like Mithrandir said I never got past the tutorial, I thought the game was overly complicated and confusing - although I love the style of the game!

@sub12@TheMightyPunram There are occasional jetpack levels where I've found it can get really chaotic, as you're trying to balance the additional control of your jetpack along with avoiding an absolute hail of incoming fire as well as in some levels object to dodge (eg falling meteorites). It can get really chaotic at times, but once you get the hang of it it's not so bad.

@SteveButler2210@sub12 Yeah, that's very true. If you ever feel like there's ever too much going on at once, though, I'd recommend taking a step back and making it easier for yourself ahead of time. One of the starting characters, Aimy, is great for this because her charged attack can hit enemies through walls. Use her right, and by the time your runner enters the fray, all of the bad guys will already be dead.

@JoeBlogs Unfortunately not, but I can maybe see it being patched in at some point.

@TheMightyPunram cheers, yeah I started working out little tips like that. Once you have a handle on how the characters are best used things become much easier. For most of the non-boss stages I found you can breeze through using Lou Don Jim near exclusively, he's an absolute powerhouse!

Finished the game this morning, and definitely glad I gave it a go as, dodgy controls for diagonal shooting aside, it is a great game! Going to give Super Hardcore Mode a go at some point, although not sure how far I'll get..

EDIT: has anybody unlocked the Journey character or Shuhei Yoshida yet? I've finished the game and still only got Galahad so far. I have a feeling they are linked to glorbs, as I've got most of the shard medals, but only 1 or 2 glorb medals so far, but would be nice to know for sure.

@SteveButler2210 I think they're unlocked by getting Glorbs, yeah. A good way to get them might be to blast through the easier Helladeck missions on offer and rack some Glorbs up there, instead, since you get roughly three a level.

Got it on the Xbox One a couple of months ago, but only played it for an hour or so. The entire race against the clock, and rewinding got old pretty quickly. The game just stressed me out, instead of being fun.
Too gimmicky for my taste.